


Sourpuss

by hollstein_af



Series: photography AU [1]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Just a fluffy little one shot, POV Third Person, Photography AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 08:17:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5960479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollstein_af/pseuds/hollstein_af
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura is a photographer and Carmilla is a pet owner with a crush</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sourpuss

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Wednesday ! I just moved and I don't have much internet. 
> 
> Anyway you guys are the best, thank you so much for all your lovely comments and for reading whatever rubbish my brain spews out! 
> 
> Happy early Valentines Day <3

Admittedly owning a small photography studio in the mall was not the booming business Laura had dreamed it would be. She was good at her job and confident in her abilities but unfortunately nobody comes to the mall to get professional photo's done, people come for cheap waffle irons and discount jeans, not to support local business. She would sometimes get people wondering in to browse aimlessly and leave or buy camera supplies but she hadn't had an actual commission since she had moved to this location 3 weeks ago. She just needed a chance to prove that she isn't wasting her time, to her friends, to her dad, to herself.

The jiggling bell on the door jolts her out of her thoughts, Laura jumps to her feet behind the counter eagerly as a girl with curly black hair strides in. She walks right past her, ducking behind a shelf where she isn’t even pretending to pay attention to camera equipment.

"Can I help you with anything?" Laura asks in her most professional voice.

"No".

The girl doesn't even glance at her. Rude.

"Just browsing then?" she askes, irritation shining through the forced politeness of her tone.

"That's right" comes a disaffected reply.

She's still clearly not here to shop for photography supplies and Laura is starting to loose her cool. The first thing she'd learnt about customer service is that it's probably a bad idea to scream at your customers and thats about the only thing stopping her from going off right now.

"It might be easier to find what you're looking for if you actually pay attention to the items for sale" She says sweetly through gritted teeth.

For the first time the girl actually faces her and Laura’s annoyed to find that she's attractive. Like really attractive. She’s surveying Laura with interest. Laura almost blushes under the heat of her gaze.

"Ok cutie, you got me. I'm not here to buy camera equipment".

Laura makes an indignant noise when she turns away again, glancing out the shop window through the shelf they're standing behind. The nerve of this girl! Admitting that she’s not here to buy anything and then continuing to waste Laura’s time.

“Do you want to tell me what you are doing here then? Because last time I checked it's not polite to come into somebody's place of business and blatantly waste their time!" Laura hissed.

The girl sighs impatiently as if Laura is is really putting her out.

“If you really must know I'm avoiding that blonde out there-" Laura peeks out the window to see a girl wearing a black t-shirt that reads '#swaghillia'. "And it's not exactly like this place is teeming with business cupcake" she says scathingly.

At this point Laura’s had enough, she about to turn on her heel and to walk away, back to the counter.

“Wait-" the girl scans Laura’s name tag "-Laura. I need a photographer".

Laura's so taken aback that it takes her a second to remember how to talk.

"W-what for?".

"To uh, photograph my...cat" Laura is stunned to hear the girl stumbling sightly over her words, she'd seemed so confident and apathetic only minutes ago.

She’s not sure if she should take the job; on one hand, this woman has been nothing but rude and disrespectful since the moment she burst through the door but...this is her first real chance, this is the opportunity she's been waiting for.

“I think I can do that" Laura says, a little stiffly. " I'll need your name, for the invoice".

"It's Carmilla, sweetheart".

//

The day of the photo shoot arrives and Laura can’t tell if she's more nervous or excited. She packs up her camera and a few props before driving over to Carmillas apartment (they had decided to do it there to make things easier on the cat).

Carmilla answers the door wearing sinfully tight leather pants and holding a sleek black cat. Bending down slightly, Laura scratches the cat behind its ears causing it to purr loudly.

"Who's this?" She cooes.

Carmilla clears her throat slightly.

"Her name's Mircalla".

Laura freezes in the middle of her fussing over the cat. She straightens up so she's level with Carmilla and raises an eyebrow.

"You named your cat an anagram of your own name? Full of yourself much?" She says teasingly.

She could almost swear Carmilla is blushing faintly and she pushes down the thought that it's cute.

"It's not-, I named her after Austrian nobility" Carmilla mutters.

“Sure you did".

"Can we just get this shoot over with?".

Laura raises her hands in mock surrender.

Laura gets out her equipment while Carmilla watches her.

"You sure you shouldn't be on the other side of the camera?" She smirks flirtatiously.

Laura just snorts "I'm sure". And begins the set up for her pictures.

She takes few basic shots of Mircalla curled up in what Carmilla says is her favourite chair before bring out the props.

She takes several more pictures, one of the cat in front of a backdrop of the pyramids and another in a ridiculously fancy cat-sized tiara.

Another shot with the cat in front of a space backdrop.

Another shot of the cat with a fake sack of cash.

Carmilla lingers behind her while she works, so close that Laura can feel her breath against her neck. It feels nice, much nicer than Laura wants to admit actually but it's also very distracting. And probably unprofessional. She turns her head to say something about it but the words die in her throat. She hadn't realised they were quite this close and she's completely unprepared when her eye's meet Carmilla's dark brown ones. She sucks in a breath as Carmilla's gazed drifts down to her lips. They're only centimeters apart, she could just lean in and....

No. She abruptly moves away from Carmilla, who is blinking in surprise. This cannot happen, she can't just kiss a client, especially one she barely knows. Carmilla probably wasn't even interested anyway, she's probably just an intense person and Laura would make an absolute fool of herself, not to mention ruin her professional reputation by kissing her.

She clears her throat, breaking the tension that's built up in the room.

"Okay, now let's get one of you and Mircalla together" Laura says brightly.

Carmilla raises a single, perfect eyebrow.

"I don't think so cupcake”.

“Oh come on, don't be such a sourpuss".

Carmilla sighs dramatically.

“You’re lucky you’re so cute" she say as she walks over to where Mircalla is lounging.

She plonks herself down, looking bored and apathetic.

Laura lines up the shot but pops out from behind the camera at the last second.

“Could you maybe try to look a little less miserable?" She asks.

Carmilla smiles sarcastically.

"Just because you look gorgeous even when your sulking doesn’t mean you shouldn't put in any effort" Laura mutters before she can stop herself.

Her cheeks flood with colour and she suddenly wishes the ground would swallow her up.

“you think I'm gorgeous?" Carmilla sounds extremely pleased and a little shy.

Laura forces her eye's up to look at her. She’s smiling a small kind of soft smile that radiates a warmth Laura didn't know she had inside her.

She at least has the presence of mind to click the camera and capture this side of Carmilla.

“Of course I do".

Carmilla keeps smiling at her, eyes locked on Laura's face and Laura can feel a swooping of butterflies in her stomach.

Worst. Crush. Ever.

//

It's been a week since her photo shoot with Mircalla and Laura can’t stop thinking about Carmilla. It's stupid, she tells herself, she barely knows the girl afterall. She hasn't gotten another job since then either which is making her wonder how how long it will be until she actually gets to take her camera out for a spin again.

It turns out she doesn't have to wonder long.

The phones ring tone startles her, people still don't really call the store and she isn't used to the sound.

"Hello, welcome to Hollis's house of photography, how can I help you?".

"Hey, cupcake" A familiar, flirty voice sounds through the line.

Laura fumbles with the phone, almost dropping it.

"Carmilla! Hey! What can I do for you?".

Carmillas laugh sounds crackly over the phone.

"So eager ..." the way she says it makes it sound like some kind of filthy innuendo. “I want to hire you again".

Laura's eyebrows furrow in surprise.

“To take more photos of your cat? " she asks, slightly baffled.

“Right".

Laura's still puzzled, what on earth could Carmilla want with that many professional cat photographs?

"were you not happy with the last ones or...?".

"Laura if I didn't like the first ones, do you really think I would hire you again?".

"No, I guess not".

//

The second photo shoot runs as smoothly as the first, though Laura still can't think why it would be necessary.

She tries a couple of new things; a cat-sized broadway stage replica, a small fire truck and a fake lily pad.

Carmilla is in more of a chatty mood this time around and although she never divulges any deeply personal information, Laura learns a lot about her. For example; that she was a philosophy major in college but now she works as a translator and how she loves to draw, she has a sister that she's close to and, for some reason Laura can't comprehend, she actually willingly drinks soy milk.

It's hard to stop herself from getting attached.

"Well I should go then" Laura says afterwards, standing in the doorway but making no move to leave.

It’s not unprofessional to hug a client, right? they're practically old friends at this point, it would be weird not to, right?

Before she could talk herself out of it she wrapped her arms around Carmilla in a tight hug.

It wouldn't be unprofessional to kiss a client on the cheek, right? Businessmen do it all the time, Laura told herself as she nervously pressed her lips to Carmillas cheek. She lingered there for just a second to long before the reality of what she was doing hit her. She pulled back in alarm.

"Laura-" Carmilla starts but she can't let her finish.

"Um wow, look how late it's getting! I've really gotta get going. It was really nice working with you. Bye!" Laura picks up her bag and scurries away, tripping only once, before Carmilla can respond.

//

The familiar sound of the bell on her shop door pulls Laura from the book she's reading. She looks up at her customer to find Carmilla looking back at her.

She can't help the smile that tugs at her lips as Carmilla saunters up to the counter.

“Hey cutie".

"Hey. Let me guess, you want another extensive photo shoot of you cat?" Laura asks.

"Yeah" Carmilla says and Laura wonders if she's imagining the disappointment in her tone. "Actually, no. I came to find out what you're doing on Friday night".

Laura feels her mind go blank in surprise.

“Uh I-, nothing. I was just going to marathon Buffy, why?" She stammers.

“How would you feel about going out with me instead" she asked.

She sounded confident but Laura could detect a bit of insecurity underneath her words.

"Like a date?".

Carmilla nods "yes, exactly like a date" she says patiently.

Laura feels like her body is flooding with warmth and excitement.

"I'd love to, I didn’t even think you liked me" Laura confessed, a little giddily.

Carmilla scoffs, looking at Laura with fond disbelief.

“Of course I like you. Why else would I have 37 full sized portraits of my cat?".

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is waltzingin1698, I'm not on there very much at the moment but still feel free to stop by for a chat!


End file.
